HomeThe Asian Poker Tour wrapped up the first day of its APT Finale Macau 2016 poker festival at the Crystal Palace in Casino Lisboa with 170 total entries for the Poker King Cup HKD300,000 Guaranteed opening event. The healthy turnout bumped up the prize pool past the advertised guarantee to HKD329,800. At the end of both flights, many new faces bagged up chips including newcomer Michael Chan Boon Kean from Malaysia who earned the overall chip leader status with 132,900. Here is a quick recap of the day’s action.
Flight A recap
Flight A Chip Leader, Ou Yang Bo
The first flight of the opener saw 83 total entries with 24 of them remaining at the time of bagging. While the chip lead shifted between several players, it was China’s Ou Yang Bo who finally claimed it after railing a player during the final few hands. Bo finished with a stack of 107,100. Running second in chips was Korea’s SJ Shin with 102,200. Bo and Shin were the only two players in this flight who finished with stacks over the century mark. Also making the cut were Jin Yong, Ben Martin, and the current leader of the APT Regional Player of the Year Korea race, SJ Kim.
Flight B recap
Overall Chip Leader going into Final Day, Chan Boom Kean
Flight B drew in 87 total entries with Malaysia’s Michael Chan Boon Kean coming out way on top of the 30 remaining players. Chan was one of the leaders during the final few rounds after winning a big pot with his nut flush. At the last level of the day, he dominated the table, winning a majority of the pots, and claiming a few heads along the way to bag up 132,900 in chips. While no one came close to Chan’s stack, there were several notable players who made the cut, Tetsuya Tsuchikawa, Pete Yen Han Chen, Steffen Endres, and the defending champion of this event, Lim Yo Hwan. Incidentally, Yo Hwan is running second in the APT RPOY Korea race, trailing SJ Kim by a very small margin.
The opening event also saw its share of notable players unable to keep their seats warm. Among them were Kai Paulsen, Dhaval Mudgal, Pasi Heinanen, Aso Seitaro, William Teoh, Phu Danh Nguyen, and APT POY race leader, Iori Yogo.
Action resumes tomorrow, Thursday, December 8th at 1pm. A total of 54 players will be returning to the felt with 18 of them guaranteed a payout. The eventual winner will ship in the first place purse of HKD84,300. Chip counts can be found in the APT Facebook page.